Army's Signals chief retires

New Delhi : Lt. Gen. Ashish Ranjan Prasad, known for his efforts toward integration of communication of the three services, retired as Signal Officer-in-Chief on Tuesday.

An alumnus of BIT, Mesra, Ranchi, he was commissioned in the Corps of Signals in June 1981 and took over its reins in 2016 and spearheaded the efforts towards integration of communication of the three services.

A large number of troops deployed in remote areas were devoid of civilian communication infrastructure and were unable to speak to their family members as calls, when made on satellite phones, were exorbitantly expensive.

To find a way ahead, Prasad devised a mechanism to facilitate Telephone Preference Service to call up their homes free of cost as 'Welfare Comn' (communication), which has now been established at all military exchanges. On an average, more than 3,000 calls are materialising daily.

Prasad has also introduced need-based networks based on the Internet and commercial networks using multiple security options.